Transcript Kansas Nebraska Act of 1845

Kansas Nebraska Act of
1845
Background
• Millions of acres of excellent farm land was still available
in the United States.
– Thought it necessary to begin to settle this land.
– Those involved in railroad interests especially wanted this land
settled
• Farmers would be great customers
– There were four previous attempts to draw up legislatures for this
land, and each failed.
– Solution:
• Bill proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas in Jan. 1854
– Douglas wanted a railroad that extended from his home city of Chicago
to the West and then reaching to California. The Southern Senators,
however, wanted a transcontinental one that reached from New
Orleans to South Carolina.
– To compromise, Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854,
where he proposed two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska.
Stephen A. Douglas
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Senator of Illinois
Democratic party leader in the Senate
Chairman of the Committee of Territories
Promoter of railroads
– Thus, the main reason he proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in
order to establish railroads.
• Strong believer in “popular sovereignty”
– A.K.A. Grass roots democracy
– Means that a state is created by and for the complete rule of the
people
– In the case of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, this was primarily
aimed at whether there would be slavery of not.
Opposition to Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• Act was passed on May 30,1854, signed by
President Franklin Pierce.
– Northern Democrats and southerners supported
– The rest of the northerners hated it
• Organized the Republican Party- a grass roots opposition
party
– Repealed the Missouri Compromise
• Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in all new
states north of the 36 30’ line. Since the Kansas-Nebraska
Act allowed these new territories, which were in fact north of
that line, to decide for themselves whether of not there would
be slavery, this caused a storm of opposition from the North.
Opposition Continued…
• To effect the first election, which would decide whether or not the
new territories would be free or slave states, pro-slavery and antislavery supporters packed into these territories.
– Violence broke out
• John Brown fought against pro-slavery supporters in the Pottawatomie
Massacre and the town of Osawatomie.
– Each group drew up state constitutions
• Pro-slavery offered constitutions in two forms. Neither, of course, made
slavery illegal.
• Anti-slavery boycotted these, and so organized one that called for a free
state.
• The Lecompton Constitution (pro-slavery) was sent to Congress and
approved.
– Douglas opposed this for the fact that it did not offer to prohibit slavery as well as
accept it
– Northern congressmen refused to admit Kansas as a slave state
• Therefore, the issue was halted
Results
• A new anti-slavery constitution was established and on
Jan. 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a
free state. Nebraska was not admitted into the Union
until after the Civil War.
• The Act was one of the last causes of separation
between the North and the South. It pushed the nation
closer towards civil war.
• Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing
for the choice of slavery in the new territories that
previously prohibited it.
• Gave rise to the only other political party the currently
exists in the U.S. today: The Republican Party.
Analysis
It is important to examine every part of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, because if you look closely at the whole situation, things
are not exactly as they seem. At first glance, the conflict
seems to have been caused by disagreements over the issue
of slavery. However, if you look more closely, you can see
that the real issue was not over slavery, but of each section of
the United States (the North and South) fighting to have their
own kinds of governments run the whole country. After all, the
north and south spent more time trying to get their
constitutions approved by Congress than actually fighting for
or against slavery. Thus, the real issue of the civil war was not
mainly over slavery, but over differences in government.